Justice News

Former Chief Executive Officer and Senior Vice President of Barbadian Insurance Company Charged with Laundering Bribes to Former Minister of Industry of Barbados

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Ingrid Innes, the former chief executive officer, and Alex Tasker, a former senior vice president of Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL), a Barbados-based insurance company, were charged in a superseding indictment unsealed on January 18, 2019, with laundering bribes to the former Minister of Industry of Barbados in exchange for his assistance in securing government contracts for ICBL. Innes and Tasker are not in U.S. custody.

Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Brian A. Benczkowski, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the charges.

Innes and Tasker were charged with one count of conspiracy to launder money and two counts of money laundering in the superseding indictment. The former Minister of Industry of Barbados, Donville Inniss, a U.S. legal permanent resident who resided in Tampa, Florida, and Barbados, was charged with the same crimes in an indictment unsealed on August 6, 2018, and as a co-defendant of Innes and Tasker in the superseding indictment. Inniss is scheduled for trial on June 24, 2019, before United States District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto.

The superseding indictment alleges that in 2015 and 2016, Innes and Tasker participated in a scheme to launder into the United States approximately $36,000 in bribes that they paid to Inniss, who at the time was a member of the Parliament of Barbados and the Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development of Barbados.

The charges in the superseding indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

ICBL voluntarily disclosed to the government the payments to Inniss and received a prosecution declination under the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy. ICBL disgorged to the government $93,940.19 in illicit profits that it earned from the scheme.

The FBI’s New York Field Office and International Corruption Squad is investigating the case. In 2015, the FBI formed International Corruption Squads across the country to address national and international implications of foreign corruption.

Assistant United States Attorney Sylvia Shweder of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and Trial Attorney Gerald M. Moody, Jr., of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are in charge of the prosecution.

The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) matters. Additional information about the Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa.